In a stern message to telecom operators, DoT on Thursday said the industry can’t give excuses like problems in installing mobile towers for rising call drops and asked them to get their act together to tackle the issue.

Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan told PTI in an interview that the Department of Telecom (DoT) will meet the industry after January 21 as soon as Trai report comes out on quality of mobile services benchmarked on the regulator’s new call drop formula.

“The government is very concerned about call drop (and service) quality. We want to convey to the industry that the situation can’t continue and they have to take corrective steps,” Sundararajan said.

Acknowledging that mobile operators do face difficulty in setting up towers at times, given resistance from people, she said that it cannot be cited as an excuse for call drops, and asserted that investments will have to made by them in upgrading infrastructure.

DoT has taken up the issue around rolling out of telecom infrastructure in states, she said, adding that “the industry has to get its act together. They have to earmark more investments into infrastructure”.

Trai’s new and stringent call drop rules came into force from October 1 and the quarter ended December will see the first instance of reporting under the new formula.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has already asked the operators to submit their network-related data for checking service quality under the new parameters.

As per the new rules, the telecom operators may face a maximum penalty of Rs 10 lakh for call drops which will now be measured at mobile tower level instead the telecom circle level.